Elide's story: Throne of Glass
by EyeGlue
Summary: This is a story I wrote to describe what happened to Elide, the daughter of Lord Cal and Lady Marion Lochan. Discontinued. I might pick this up again one day but I wrote it so long ago I don't think it's fair to advertise it as anything other than abandoned
1. Chapter 1

My name is Elide Lochan. My parents are dead. My life is just survival, built from ash and tears. I want revenge.

I was born two years after my parent's wedding, in Peranth, the second largest city in Terrasen. My father was Cal Lochan the Lord of Peranth and my mother his Lady – Marion Lochan. But she wasn't always a Lady. When my mother was born she was a bastard-born commoner, a laundress in the royal palace of Orynth. Our king Orlon was childless and unmarried, his only heir was his nephew Rhoe. A few years after my mother started working at the palace it was announced that Prince Rhoe Galathinius would be marrying the Princess Evelyn Ashryver. Everyone was excited to see this princes who would one day be their queen. When the Princess was introduced to my father she spilt ink on his shirt, my father didn't notice and Evelyn enlisted the help of my mother to clean it. However my father caught her and soon after he became the clumsiest man in the palace, managing to stain every shirt in his wardrobe. No one was surprised when he announced his intent to marry my mother. Princess Evelyn was delighted, having already formed a fast friendship with her. My mother was appointed her Lady in waiting and was the second highest lady in Terrasen. I often wish that they hadn't been so friendly, if they weren't my mother may still of been alive… somewhere.

A year before my birth came one even more important, the birth of Aelin Ashryver Galathinius, future Queen of Terrasen. She hated it. I was never good friends with her, but I knew that she had no wish to be queen, she saw it as a set of golden chains that would prevent her from freedom. But what she hated most was her power, not the power of the throne but the flames that would fly in reaction with her emotions, the power she couldn't control. Before their marriage everyone had been worried about what mix the Ashryver and Galathinius bloodlines would cause. Evelyn was the granddaughter of Mab, one of the three sister queens of the fae and Rhoe was descended from Brannon the first king of Terrasen and one of the few fire wielding fae. Maeve, Mab's sister, feared what the outcome of this marriage would be. The outcome was Aelin. Aelin didn't inherit Mab's power over water, or at least only a drop, she inherited the heat and flame of Brannon and it terrified her. The other noble children in the palace feared her including me. Her only friend was her cousin Aedion Ashryver. They were as two peas in a pod, loyal and proud and caring of each other. Aedion loved her like a sister and would have done anything for her; she was his world so much that her death would have almost killed him, as it is I heard somewhere that he works for our depressors now. Why, I cannot fathom. Perhaps he truly is a traitor. Perhaps he somehow hopes to save what little remains of our once glorious country, if so he's doing more than I am.

The day Ardalan invaded was the day hell came to earth, for all of us. Aelin was at her parents' country estate with her family, excluding the king who was entertaining foreign guests at court, and my mother, Aelin's nursemaid. I mentioned that King Orlon was entertaining foreign guests, those guests were the King of Ardarlan and his wimpy, pretty flower of a son – Crown Prince Dorian Havilliard. I said he was wimpy, so was I by northern standards, but even I could hold a sword, my father insisted so I could defend myself in case something happened. Something _did_ happen. During the banquet Aelin apparently experienced some sort of sickness. Evelyn and my mother blamed Maeve, but now I'm not sure, maybe Ardarlan was behind it ?Either way she fainted, causing Rhoe, Evelyn, Aelin and my mother retired to the country leaving my father and the King to endure the Ardarlan parasites. It didn't last long. They soon returned south and we all breathed a sigh of relief at the reprieve, we didn't know what was to come.

The next morning King Orlon was found dead in his bed, murdered. When someone finally thought to send a rider to the country estate the same fate appeared to have befallen Rhoe and Evelyn. My mother's body was found beneath the wooden arch of the servant's entrance bloody and torn, her head a few metres away. Aelin was nowhere to be seen.


	2. Chapter 2

The minute my father heard of my mother's demise he led me to one of the many secret passage ways and told me to wait, leaving me with some supplies of food, clothing, case something happened. Aedion, Aelin's cousin, was supposed to meet me there and we would have fled together with some of the other noble children in the hope of keeping Orlon's inner circle alive in case Aelin had survived. Unfortunately my father's plans were ruined by Adarlan's invasion; we had expected it, but not so soon. The reason for that is something I am ashamed to admit but it's the truth, someone betrayed us. And that someone was my uncle, Vernon Lochan. I called him my uncle just that once, never again and any blood we share is a miracle in itself because he is most certainly a serpent, a cuckoo that crawled to Orynth from a nest of vipers. _He_ betrayed us. Then he seized my fathers, _my_ mantle, before his body had even cooled. And while he is my relative, I have no family left.

When I heard the sound of fighting and saw my countrymen fall I knew I could no longer wait. So I fled down the passage ways before I met the same fate at the hands of the Parasite's toy soldiers. I knew that the King of Adarlan would not spare me even if I was a child, I was a coward but I wasn't naïve. He would have killed me as my name was powerful enough that I could pose a threat to him, though Vernon would not. He was already the Parasite's puppet. So I ran down the endless passageways, getting lost more than once until eventually I came out into a mountain cave connecting to the river, I sat down and huddled behind a rock so no one would see me if the Parasite's soldiers found the cave. Finally the grief and worry and shock of the day's events crowed in on me and I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke suddenly to a loud 'Crash!' followed by a deep voice in the darkness which yelled "Clumsy oaf! Pick that up before I box you're ears in!"

Slowly I twisted my body and crept round the rock to see who was there. The light of the moon revealed the five silhouettes of rough, muscular men carrying, or rather smuggling, treasure troves of goods, presumably from the palace. My heart filled with anger. How dare they? How _dare_ they! The wealth that Orlon had carefully stored and accumulated in order to protect and feed his kingdom was being stolen away by a bunch of rag-tag criminals. In my rage I forgot to stay hidden and I let out a cry of hatred, weakened as I was it was more of a mew.

The leader, the man with the deep voice turned to me "Well, well, well, what have we here? A spoilt, palace brat by any chance?" I looked down at my clothes; they were torn but still finely made marking me as one of the nobility. "N-n-no" I said trembling. I hoped they would attribute that to my fear of the threat they posed me and not to my fear of being discovered. "Then how do you explain those?" he said gesturing to my clothes. I had to think fast. "I stole them" I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "My mother worked at the palace. I stole these in the confusion and fled." He snorts, "Whatever for?" Invasions are hardly the time to play dress-up" "Children are impractical like that" I replied. He roared with laughter. "Children also clearly don't care much for a full stomach either, jewels would have been more practical." I shrug. "Tell you what, how'd you like to come 'n' work with us?" "Doing what? What are you?" "Pirates, m'dear, pirates" was the reply


	3. Chapter 3

So that was the beginning of my new life, from Lady Elide Lochan, future Lady of Perranth to Ismae Hart, Pirate. I chose my new name carefully; I did not want to be too easily connected to Elide Lochan. It was rash then I suppose to take the name Hart. The Hart Stag is the symbol of Terrasen, because of the sacred stags of Brannon. I guess a part of me wanted something of my country to cling to, even if it was just a name.

I did not take much pride in my new occupation, though I enjoyed it none the less. It was different, new, exciting. There was one part I enjoyed a lot.

As we travelled to the main river I became aware of another figure, younger than the rest, about ten years old, gangly and tall for his age. He carried a small pack on his right shoulder and a water skin in his left hand. His eyes were a blue green mix that reminded me of the lake beneath the mountains in Perranth contrasting with the soft, curly, brown hair the colour of my mother's special hot chocolate that she made for me in the winter. The smile on his face was small, but kind and gentle, he smelled like the sea air mixed with the spice in some of the banquets in Orynth. He smelled like home.

"Hi," he said as I struggled along the rocky path, "Need any help?" I scowled suddenly, _what was doing?_ "No," I replied sharply and proceeded to storm off, only to get my shoe caught in a rabbit hole. I tripped and fell, letting out a cry of pain, or was it simply surprise? He rushed over and knelt beside me, "The correct answer was yes Aengus, I do need help," he chided, examining my injured ankle. "Aengus?"Yes, it's my name, Aengus Josan" he replied, holding out his free hand to me, "I'm the captain's son," he nodded his head in the direction of the man who'd spoken to me in the cave. "Oh," I really didn't know what to say, but I guess there was some resemblance, the most prominent being their small, identical, round ears. "I'm Ismae Hart."

"I doubt it, you can say what you like to dad, but servants don't talk like you do."

"What's it to you if I'm not who I say I am." "Nothing, I'm just curious as to what it is your hiding."

"Well don't be, mind your own business" I snapped. He didn't reply and we sat in silence as he tended my shin.

When he'd finished bandaging up my foot he stood and helped me stand. I limped tentatively forward and, finding that it wasn't as bad as it had seemed, I continued onwards. Aengus hurried to catch up with me "Slow down," he cautioned, I huffed but slowed none the less, "It's not my fault that you're so slow, you can't even stop someone with a broken ankle!"

"If I wanted to beat you I could and your ankle's far broken!"

"Really? I can quite feel it snapping in to…yes, yes it's breaking wowwohhhh-uff" I fell flat on my face and, with my face turned away I started to grin.

"Ismae!" I heard Aengus shout as he ran over to me. I felt him put a hand on my back. "Are you all right?" He asked gently. It was too much. I started to giggle and for once the enormous grief I'd experienced over the past few days fell away, at least for a moment. As my chest heaved I saw the expression on Aengus's face change from concern, to alarm and finally when realisation hit him he gave a half- hearted frown with a twinkle in his eye. "Come on, we need to catch up with the others," he said then he helped me up. When I was vertical I saw him holding out a long, thin stick to me, "So you don't have another accident he said. I smiled and accepted.


	4. Chapter 4

With the help of the walking stick (it actually was very useful, even if it was just a joke on Aengus's account) we soon reached the others who were already at the main river and Captain Josan's boat. There were more men waiting on the boat and helping load the stolen goods. A small part of me still wanted to protest at the taking of Orlon's treasure, but I was too focused on surviving to worry. I doubted he would need it now he was dead and I'd rather it landed in pirate hands then those of the Parasite's men.

I picked up a small chest and struggled with it up the gang plank. In doing so I slipped and almost fell head-first into the water. Fortunately there was a hand on my back to steady me, "Easy there, princess, need any help?" I turned to see Aengus reaching for the chest. I dove for it and picked it up before he could lay a figure on it, "No" I scowled and turned my back to him. Then I continued to shuffle laboriously up the plank. Finally I reached the top and dumped the chest down, groaning at the strain of my physical exertion. I sat down and sagged against the side of the boat, panting.

"Nice going, princess" Said a voice in my ear. Aengus leaned against a mast, smirking.

"Don't call me princess" I warned angrily. I wasn't a princess, Aelin was, the royal family was dead and there was no need to rub it in.

"As you wish, My Lady," came the reply. This time it wasn't anger that flared but panic. I stood, forcing myself to my feet despite my weariness, "What is your problem? Can't you see that I just want to be left alone? Because in case you hadn't noticed, this country has gone to hell, most of the citizens are dead, enslaved or homeless or like me, with everything they have ever known ripped from them and just trying to survive the next second! So I do not care. I don't care about your jokes. I don't care for you company and I don't care about you so leave me alone!"

With these last few statements I pushed him away from me and when I finally told him to leave me alone I gave him a great shove and he toppled backwards and into the water, the very fate I'd saved him from minutes before. At first I was too shocked at what I'd done to move, but then I began to feel laughter building up in my lungs. Fighting the urge to let it out I raise an eyebrow, "Man overboard," I drawled and sauntered off. I heard laughter at my back and knew I wouldn't get in trouble for pushing the captain's son into the river.

Later, after I had been assigned a cabin (it was very small, but I needed my privacy) I allowed my mind to drift. I hadn't thought of the sudden turn of events much, hadn't allowed myself, but I needed to for the sake of my sanity. My parents were dead. The royal family was dead. Most of the court was dead. Terrasen was no more, the land was still there but now it was simply and Adarlan colony. I was alone. These were the facts that ended the life of Elide Lochan. My name was Ismae Hart, an anonymous pirate the world would never-

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. I sighed. "Come in!" I called. Aengus stood in the doorway, his hair was wet and there was a towel slung over his soldiers.

"Hey, I came to apologize for teasing you. You're right the world has gone to hell, that might profit us villains, but not you, right Elide?" I froze, he knew my name. The very girl I had just thought of as dead had become alive in me; her heart began to beat again. I was terrified.

"How did you…?"

"I saw you once at court, I was stealing jewels, speaking of, I brought you something." He opened out his palm and in it laid a silver chain with a sapphire pendant hanging from it – my mother's necklace, the one my father gave her as a wedding present.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise," I stared at him in disbelief, "I promise," he repeated to reassure me then he grinned, "Even aristocratic brats don't deserve what you've been through. Come on Cook's got soup in the gallery, enjoy it while you can. It tastes awful after a week or so at sea, but it should be alright fresh."


	5. Chapter 5

_Five years later…_

I learnt much over the next few years- basic navigation, swimming, hand-to-hand fighting methods with swords, knifes and fists. Aengus taught me how to swing from the rigging like a monkey, something I enjoyed immensely; it made me feel like a bird soaring through the sky with nothing but air beneath me. But the greatest feeling ever was when you reached the Crow's Nest at the top and looked out over the open water. I used to take extra shifts on look-out just to stay there. When the sun rises at dusk you can it rushing up to meet the morning sky, spilling warm, vibrant colours across the sea's surface and when it sets the same effect as the sun swoops down to kiss the sea goodnight. These were my favourite times of day; Aengus would often share them with me.

Aengus and I both changed in those years. I watched as his shoulders broadened and the muscles in his arms thickened, his gangly form shifted into that of a toned, muscled young man. His skin was tanned bronze from days spent in the sun unlike my own which was to pale to tan and only burned, causing me to wear clothing that covered as much of my body as possible. My own body also changed. I became taller, stronger and more flexible. My waist began to curve inwards slightly and my hands were calloused from clinging to the rough rope of the rigging.

It wasn't just our bodies that changed; I grew to trust Aengus in a world where trust usually equated to stupidity. He trusted me too. We told each other our darkest secrets and wildest dreams, our deepest fears and greatest loves. We were the best of friends. Captain Josan's crew called us the inseparable monkeys, after the way we'd dance in the rigging like monkeys and the way we'd always be found together.

Another person I came to trust was Aengus's father, Captain Bellamy Josan. He was a gruff man and seemingly violent with strangers, but among the crew he was our leader and our friend. To me he was the Uncle that Vernon never was, though he couldn't replace my own dear father, no one could ever do that.

I grew to accept my parent's deaths and the pain I felt at the thought of them lessened into a dull throb and a single tear. However I could not, _would_ not forgive their deaths, the pain had numbed but it still lurked in grave yard within my heart, threatening to emerge at any minute. Still, despite the tragedy, I was content.

My contentedness was ruined unfortunately, when one hot summer's day Captain Josan announced that we would be sailing to skulls bay to pay our tithes to the Pirate Lord Rolfe. Aengus and I met eyes through the crowd. We talked of Rolfe often enough, of his cruelty and ruthlessness and the conditions which he kept his slaves in. Lord Rolfe was deeply involved in the slave trade. Slaves from Fenharrow and Eyllwe and Melisande and…Terrasen all passed through his hands. Terrasen. _My people._

When the crowd dispersed I flung myself up the rigging and into the Crow's nest, scowling at the sunset I would normally enjoy. My brooding was interrupted by a soft thud behind me. Aengus.

"Hey," he whispered, "Need any help?"

I chuckled at this old joke between us. "I'm pretty sure that brooding is a singular activity."

He smiled at my own small joke and then his face became serious. "I hate it too you know," He said looking at me with such deep understanding in his eyes, "So does Dad, but he doesn't have a choice, we'd be in trouble and have a fleet of pirates at our backs"

"I know, but it doesn't mean I have to like it," I sighed sadly, "I just can't stop thinking of all those people that I would have been responsible for, that I should've protected." Tears filled my eyes at the thought of the men, women and _children_ that died, and still die under the Parasite's rule.

"Hey, hey, it's _not_ your fault, Elide," His eyes burned into me with a fierce intensity that sent shivers down my spine. Only he knew my name, and to hear it spoken sparked something inside me that died long ago and as his arms closed around me I nurtured that spark, trying to ignite a flame. He held me for a while, comforting and solid and when we finally broke apart he stared me in the eyes searching for an answer only I could give. I broke my gaze from the gentle understanding in his eyes and trailed my eyes down his face to lips as they met mine in a kiss, our silhouettes becoming one against the sunset.

It was a short kiss, but sweet and gentle and the beginning of something I would come to treasure as much, if not more, than my mother's necklace. But it wasn't love that sprang between us, or at least not the love that the poets who'd visited court had spoken of. But it was a kind of love, soft and gentle as our kiss, a haven from the world of violence and chaos that we in inhabited.

A kind of love that would grow and mature as we did, flourishing into a wild burning passion.

It was a love that could take on Rolfe.

It was a love that could hold for eternity


End file.
